The jobs president.

Largely lost in the distracting din of President Trump’s early morning tweets, his baiting of opponents, the howling, unhinged, foaming-at-the-mouth opposition from Democrats to everything that he says and does, breathless announcements in the media of “bombshell” revelations about Trump wrongdoing, endless investigations and sordid attempts to dig up something – anything – upon which to hang an impeachment, off-the-wall-crazy environmental policy proposals from a former barmaid-turned-congresswoman-turned media darling, and – lest we forget – the interminable Mueller investigation…is the fact that American workers are doing better than they have in half a century.

We’ve had strong jobs numbers before. But not this strong. The lead sentence in a series of articles last weekend in the Wall Street Journal read, “The job market doesn’t get much better than this.” People on every rung on the employment ladder who previously had trouble landing a job are now finding work. Wages are on the rise – bringing optimism about the future along with them. In some places, the unemployment rate is below three percent. Nearly everywhere there are more job openings than there are job seekers to fill them.

Stop for a moment and consider the significance of this. Nearly every politician in nearly every political campaign promises policies that will result in, ‘better jobs and better wages for hard-working Americans,’ and blah, blah, blah.

Yet think really hard and try to come up with even one politician about whom you have ever said, “Wow, that guy really created a lot of jobs.” Nobody coming to mind (save for perhaps the Gipper)? Me neither.

That is until now. Unless you’re economically illiterate, ideologically hidebound or just blinded by hatred of Donald Trump, it is impossible to dismiss the policy successes of the Trump administration and their impact on employment. Tax reduction and regulatory reform have undeniably kick-started the jobs market. You just can’t plausibly pretend that the policy success isn’t there.

The response by Democrats to that success has been laughable. They’re out talking about 70 percent top marginal tax rates (on the “rich” of course), increased corporate tax rates, free healthcare and free college. But only when they’re not busy setting their own hair on fire over climate change or plotting a Trump impeachment that will never happen.

One of the Dems’ latest fevered-brain ideas is a guaranteed basic income regardless of how little or how much one works. It’s idiotic, of course – made more so by the fact that it’s not even what most people want.

A job is about more than earning money to pay to pay the bills. A job is about accomplishment. It’s about purpose – receiving something of value for having done something of value. Most people want to be worthwhile and a good job makes that possible. And for the first time in a long time there are jobs out there – good jobs – that are begging for people to fill them.

Throughout 2016 candidate Donald Trump said, “I’ll be the greatest jobs president that God ever created.”

3 Responses

Thanks, Holland. The quote from the Nationwide economist in your linked article sums it up… “A shockingly low jobs figure for February does not change the labor market narrative by itself,” said Ben Ayers, senior economist at Nationwide. “The three-month trend in job gains remains solid while survey data suggest no letup in demand for workers by employers.”

It would be very instructive to go to the link referred to in Holland’s response to Paul’s commentary. If you are actually wanting to be informed, and not just looking for ammunition to bash our president, the gist of the article is very clear. True, February job creation did not meet expectations; however, this was an anomaly, and the headline does not reflect the very positive statistics and performance of the current administration outlined in the body of the article. The headline seems to be “selective citation” and very misleading. There are plenty of opportunities to criticize the tweets and other “politically incorrect” behavior of our president, but employment opportunity is not one of them. Maybe I prejudged the purpose of the link; probably it was an expression of support for the great JOB President Trump is doing with JOBS?

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Author’s Note

When I was a young man trying to break in to the radio business, one of the biggest radio stations in the country was Dallas's KLIF 1190 AM.

The station was owned by broadcasting pioneer Gordon McLendon. McLendon was known for his sharply-written editorials. Those editorials were, however, a one-way street. There was no practical way for the listener to respond.

But that is no longer the case. With the the advent of the Internet, lectures have turned into dialogues.
That's my hope for this website. I say what's on my mind. You respond by saying what's on yours.